First encounters of the Tverri kindPrelude to war
by Porthos112
Summary: In the not so distant future all the TV signals that have left our planet in the last thirty years will come back to haunt us. With Ranma in Cryo stasis, how will the NWC respond to this threat from the stars
1. Prologue

Disclaimer - I ain't no Rumiko Takahashi, I am a mere vassal who worships at her deific feet. For any lawyers who work for her or any company that may own rights to Ranma half I pray you waste neither your time nor talents in suing me, as all I have is a Pentium three and an incomplete set of Ranma half volumes. And I'm sure if you asked Takahashi-sama nicely she would be happy to give you a set of Ranma half, and if you ask really nicely she may even sign them for you. As for the Pentium III please take it, it'll give me an excuse to finally upgrade to something that's not quite so prehistoric, just give me a chance to get my files off of it first.

This is my latest idea for a fanfic. For those who wonder where I'm going with it, well eventually this will be an Amazon/musk space opera. The NWC makes it into space with all of the usual madness and mayhem. Though this will be mostly a drama there will be brief moments of humour. A little like real life, ne? Those of you hoping for romance or stories about Ranma well, there might be some of that stuff in here but Ranma will make his comeback in the second arc of this story.

Now onto really important stuff. If by some chance you like, hate or are indifferent to my story please review. I'd really like to hear from you why you have any of the above feelings about my story. No, I mean really, I spent weeks working on this, all I ask is a few moments of your time in response not such a bad trade really it it? lol.

Prologue

First Encounters of the Tverri kind.

Ranma stared in stunned disbelief at Dr. Tofu. He'd been talking to the doc on and off for the last few months, now the results from all that poking and prodding were coming to an end and maybe he'd get some of the answers he needed. It was just that the answers he was getting sounded nothing like what he expected, not even in his worse dreams.

"What are you talking about doctor?"

"Well Ranma, I've consulted two neuro surgeons and the head of the neurology department at Tokyo University, they all concur. Put simply Ranma you've been hit in the head a few times too many, that's why you've been getting headaches over the last two years. In other words you're suffering from accumulated brain damage."

"Bwa-ha-ha I always knew you were touched in the head Ranma!"

"I don't think that's appropriate Mu-Tzu, and what on earth are you doing in here?" Dr. Tofu Ono turned and looked at the Chinese Amazon with a withering gaze which was totally wasted on the myopic martial artist.

"I came with the old mummy." THWOK. "Ouch that hurt!"

"It was meant to Duck-boy." The afore mentioned 'Old Ghoul' smirked, as she believed the throwing of insults should be the purview of the old and, or the powerful and as she qualified for both she was doubly entitled.

"Ko-lohn this is a private consultation I'll have to ask you to leave." The young doctor came as close to being annoyed as she'd ever heard him.

"Oh don't worry about it Doc. Knowing Nabiki they'll find out about it sooner or later anyway."

"Hey I resent that! Er, heh heh, oops."

"You might as well come in Nabiki, if you could use the front door instead of my window. Is there anyone else you'd like in here while we're at it Ranma?" Tofu Ono tapped he desk impatiently.

"I suppose we might as well get the rest of the family in here, if it's as important as you say then I'd like to get it over with in one hit." Ranma frowned, he had a feeling this was going to be nearly as hard to talk about as the time Ryoga had stepped in one puddle too many in front of Akane.

-An hour later-

"Ah good everyone is finally here. As I was saying to Ranma here the situation is indeed grim. When I returned to Nerima a few months ago I noticed that he was not as energetic as I remembered but put my observations aside. Then he came to me complaining of headaches I decided to run a few tests."

"Son why didn't you tell me you were suffering from headaches?" Nodoka frowned at her wayward son.

"Umm. I didn't know if you'd find that manly or not..."

"But...Son the Seppuka pledge was fulfilled on your eighteenth birthday!"

"Nodoka maybe you should wait for me to finish my report before you ask any more questions, okay?" Dr. Tofu straightened his glasses as he looked at the Saotome matriarch.

"Certainly doctor." Nodoka resumed her seat and folded her hands in her lap as she returned her attention to the good doctor.

"As I was saying, after running a basic physical I couldn't find anything conclusive to base a diagnosis on, so I moved on to a more in-depth study. I became disturbed by the disruption to Ranmas Chi flows, that was when I called in some colleagues. After an extensive battery of tests we came to the conclusion that Ranma had several brain tumors. That was where the problems began, both doctors claimed that given the size and position of the tumors neither would give the patient even a 1 chance to survive an operation to remove them. As such at this point in time the condition is terminal..."

"Terminal?" Nodoka whispered disbelieving the words she was hearing. Akane shook her head as the edges of her vision began to go black. The man who'd defeated all comers over the last decade would be killed by a few pieces of diseased flesh.

" Airen no can be dying!"

"Bweee!"

Akane's head snapped around at the new intrusion. "Ryoga!"

P-chan looked up into a number of hostile faces and realized two things, the first being he'd come back to a place he really didn't want to be for awhile, at least until they realized that he hadn't meant anything by it. The second was that if he didn't get out of there quickly there was a good chance several of those people would have him over for breakfast, probably as the main course. Akanes mallet appeared in her hand as anger overwhelmed her. Ryoga became a black streak heading for the door. Unfortunately his sense of direction was as good as usual and he ricocheted off the door frame at high speed then made his way into the far corner of the room where he shook his head to clear the dizziness. Ranma suffered a severe case of déjà vu and cowered until he realized Akane had cornered her former pet with the battle cry, "Ryoga prepare to die!" At the top of her lungs. The little black cornered pig swung it's snout from side to side looking for some kind of escape route, even as Akane opened up her stance to begin her trademark attack. With a frantic squeal he bolted between her feet, the squeal continued as he ran under a chair and out the other side towards freedom.

(Coincidentally somewhere in the multi-verse the author of 'Dr. Doolittle' was having a little trouble as he'd just translated that exact same pigs squeal into a strange language. After further discourse with a language expert he'd discovered that it further translated to 'Ranma this is all your fault!' This led the author to ask three very important questions(at least to his mind), the first being. "Where the hell did the little black pig come from?" obviously not knowing Ryoga very well. The second question was, "Who on earth was Ranma and how does he fit into my story?" and lastly and possibly most importantly to his mind, seeing as the first two were probably a testament to his creative genius, was, "Since when do I know Japanese?" Said author decided to resolve his confusion by the simple expedient of tossing said chapter into his waste paper basket. He was currently running three for three along with the manuscript for 'The pigs on the moon.', and the science-fiction story 'The day the Earth stood still' where you guessed it a little black pig trotted down the ramp and proceeded to 'Shi Shi Hokkoudan' the evil human race into extinction after being shot by the silly machine gunner.)

-Back in the Ranma-verse-

Several things happened almost simultaneously, Akane moved to strike Ryoga who had just run under Ranmas chair, Cologne blurred as she moved to block Akanes mallet thus sending the youngest Tendo into the far wall of the clinic where she came to rest upside down watching the pretty birdies, and lastly Ryoga received friction burns after Nodoka Saotome screamed "Ryoga sit!", the command caused P-chans rear legs to fold under him, the smell of roast suckling pig wafted through the room as he dragged his rear end at high speed across the tiled floor.

"Oooooh! That's gotta hurt." Ranma winced in sympathy with his longtime sparring partner as the little black pig became a vertical streak of bacon heading unerringly for the only source of hot water in the room. Upon landing Ryoga found all eyes in the room trained on his currently naked form.

"Aww, come on Ryoga put some clothes on man!"

"Kasumi can I have my camera back? Pretty please!" Nabiki finished a quick profit assessment based on what she could see. The only downside to the picture was the fact his face was screwed up in pain. Then again who the hell looks at faces in those kind of photos? Nabiki looked at her older sister to find out what her answer would be only to find Kasumi trying to work out the focus mechanism on said camera.

"Young man you have a lot of explaining to do!" An unamused Nodoka began to untie the cloth around her katana.

Soun Tendo decided his demon head was a more appropriate emotional state than his past Niagara Falls impression. "Ryoga! How dare you defile my youngest daughter!"

Dr. tofu walked casually around the room tapping shiatsu points as he went. Soun Tendo and Genma Saotome followed very quickly by Nodoka Saotome and the youngest Tendo daughter plus Ryoga were hit with the temporary paralyzation pressure point that the good doctor used on them. None of the others seemed to be inclined to move after the casual display of shiatsu pressure points so he left them alone.

"Now that I have everyone's attention, let me continue my diagnosis. Any questions so far?" Ono smiled as he gazed around at the currently paralyzed family and friends of his patient. "No? Okay as I was saying the situation is currently terminal. Though I have been assured by both specialists and Professor Nuemeyer of Tokyo University that there are several techniques currently under development that may help Ranma recover." The feeling of relief that permeated the room at that calm disappeared with his next words. "The problem is that they could be decades away from a clinical trial. To be honest with the rapid advance of the illness I believe Ranma may have only a year, two at the most." Ono Tofu straightened his glasses as he assessed how best to dispense the rest of the information he had. "As far as the medical community is concerned every day Ranma remains alive is a miracle. Without his fast healing techniques we believe that Ranma would already be dead. As it is he's been holding his own with this illness for maybe a couple of years and is only now beginning to succumb. As time goes on the tumors will continue to grow and apply pressure to parts of the brains neurological structure. This will cause what neurologists call character dislocation, which means basically that the easy-going Ranma that we all know may gradually disappear, leaving behind at best a forgetful Ranma and at worst a stark raving homicidal maniac."

"Whoa, don't pull any punches why doncha Doc!" Ranma flinched as he heard the doctor's harsh assessment.

"I'm sorry Ranma but I don't have time to be nice, and neither do you."

"So what am I supposed to do? Should I just curl up into a little ball and die now?"

"Well I suppose you could if you really wanted to. But in the meantime there is a much more viable option." Dr. Tofu looked around the room to see how people were taking his statement.

"So? You gonna tell me, or do I have to guess?" Ranma folded his arms across his chest and hmphd in frustration.

"Patience Ranma."

"Hey, you're the one who keeps telling me I don't have time!" Ranma folded his arms across his chest as he waited impatiently for Tofu to enlighten them as to the proposed plan.

"Well alright, between us we did come up with a plan that should preserve you until the research is completed. If you hold off on your questions I'll fill you in on the procedure. The problem is that while they have managed the procedure on small mammals they haven't been able to find any human test subjects."

"Umm, what procedure are you talking about here?"

"Well it's called cryo-genic statis. Basically they freeze your body until such time as there is a cure for your condition."

"I've heard of this, isn't this like that stuff they did over in America. I hear that didn't go so well."

"You're right Nabiki, the early projects were all abysmal failures. They discovered how to freeze the body without significant cell deterioration, but then couldn't revive the test subjects. Their early failures are partially responsible for the lack of volunteers at the moment. They need a guinea pig, um excuse me they've already revived guinea pigs with the new process, what they need now are human pigs. No offense intended Ryoga."

"None taken doc." Though he looked ready to take issue with what was said, he was still paralyzed and decided to sulk instead, which isn't really an attractive look for a grown man.

"So let me get this straight. You want me to get frozen by these people because they can't find anyone else who's stupid enough to try it." Ranma looked vaguely hurt that his long time friend wanted to do this to him.

"Let me clarify the situation for you. These are your chances as they stand. Cryo-genic stasis at present has a eighty-seven percent chance of revival."

"That's not exactly what I'd call good odds Dr. Tofu."

"What? You mean in relation to the other odds of you living. You currently have a one hundred percent chance of dying either the next time someone hits you in the head, or sometime in the next two years with the added option of you going crazy and hurting a lot of people." He watched as Ranma winced again at the imagery. "If by some chance we can talk a surgeon into operating they give you a point two percent chance of surviving. Now when I put it like that it's easy to see that our plan offers the best chance for your survival."

"That's easy for you to say Doc. it's my neck on the line." Ono Tofu sighed as he took in the words of the reluctant young martial artist.

"You're right Ranma, I'm sorry. I shouldn't be pushing like this, it's just I know that this has the best chance of succeeding."

"You ever stop to think that it might just be my time?"

"If that's the case Ranma then nothing we do or don't do will make a difference. If on the other hand it's not as you say 'your time', then you might be giving up when karma put this in your path to test you. Anyhow it's not something anyone can decide for you Ranma, this is a problem that only you can make a decision on."

"Gee thanks, give me a moment. Hey I don't have to decide right away do I?"

"No, not right away. But the sooner you make a decision the more likely they are to accept you as a candidate."

"You said they couldn't get anyone to do this. So why would they refuse."

"Well they may decide that your condition has deteriorated too much to risk wasting time and resources on such an experiment, especially if they don't think in your weakened condition that you'll survive the initial procedure."

"Damn it! I ain't ready to die yet. I mean I'm still young, I should have time to do all the things I wanna do. Okay just give me a little time to think it over." He decided to ignore the snort of incredulity coming from Nabiki and Ryoga. Closing his eyes he decided to treat it like any other ombat scenario, that way he'd be sure to cover all eventualities. That is until the paralysis point wore off of his father.

"Son I demand you do it. Who else is there to carry on the Anything Goes style. Have you no honour, oh the shame, to have such an honourless cur for a son."

"Oyaji, close your yap before I close it for ya!" Genma sprang out of his chair and took a ready stance opposite his son, not realising until too late that Ranma had decided that since he would probably die if his father connected that he wasn't going to hold back. In a first for the pig-tailed martial artist, he gave no warning of what technique he was going to use, he neither moved or even looked at his father. That didn't stop the high powered Mouko Takabisha from picking the middle aged man off his feet and slamming him through the clinics wall to deposit him in the street in a smoking heap. "Right, that was a warning shot, the next person who interupts me before I make a decision is gonna get real hurt."

Most of the others in the room were staring at the usually laid back young man. All except for Ryoga that is who had inexplicably disappeared while turning to watch the fat mans ejection from the room. Ranma closed his eyes for a second time, as silence descended on the room. Several seconds later he opened then again.

"Okay."

Dr Tofu blinked, "What, just like that?"

"Yeah, you were right it really was a simple decision, it's the only one that gives me any chance to survive. How much is this gonna cost? I mean none of the families are rich or anything." Nabiki blinked as the pigtailed martial artist stole the very next question she was about to ask.

"I know that Ranma, as it's an experimental procedure the University of Tokyo will pick up any expenses incurred in the procedure."

"Right then that's all settled. How soon do you think they'll want to start?"

"Well they'll probably want to initiate the project right away. I happen to know that they've had the apparatus prepped and ready to go ever since they offered the plan to me."

"So do you want to..." He was interupted as Ganma stumbled back into the room.

"Yuu Mussh do it fer sake ov de arrt boy!"

"Ahhrrgg! Mum can I hit him again?"

"Be my guest, if you don't I will. On second thought..." Nodoka unfolded her hands from her lap and grasped the Saotome family honour blade. "Oh Genma." The steely slithering sound the blade made as it came free from the sheath caused an stream of ice to flow down his back. Genma turned his head reluctantly to look at his wife.

"Yes dear." He sweated as he noticed the expression in her eyes. "This is going to hurt isn't it?" Just before he turned back to the hole in the wall and casually bolted for dear life, with his wife in hot pursuit.

"Now that he had coming." Tofu-san muttered as he turned back to the occupants left in the room.

It was at this time that he remembered that Cologne was still in the room as she grated out the first thing she'd said since hitting Mousse over the head earlier.

"This is all well and nice, I'm happy Ranma will survive in the long run. Would someone like to explain to me how my family is supposed to retain honour in this situation. If we return now, without son-in-law, at the very least they'll make us outcast, if they don't curse or attempt to kill us."

"Huh?" Ranma gaped at the old crone.

"What do you suggest, if he leaves here he'll die."

"Well we can't have that. But for us to retain some shred of honour we must return with something of equal value." She placed her finger on her chin as if she'd only just started to think about a way to get around the situation, not that she was fooling anyone for a second. "Hmmm, that might do it."

"Do what?" Ranma was still trying to wrap his head around the change in the direction of the conversation.

"Exactly. The only way we can go home is if Shampoo is pregnant with Ranmas child."

"Ranma you jerk, how could you?"Akane shouted. In the background Soun's Demon-head could be seen as it made its first appearance for the day, unfortunately no one was actually watching so it had no effect on proceedings.

"I didn't do nothing Akane!"

"Young lady I suggest you stop waving that mallet around and sit back down!" Cologne barked the command at Akane while her staff moved in a blur that came to rest against her throat.

"Hey 'Old Ghoul' you leave Akane alone." Ranma called out.

"No." She said with chilling finality, she didn't lower the staffs point until the mallet disappeared as the anger used to power the chi attack dissipated and turned to fear. The Amazon matriarch gave a smile to match the voice she'd used on the youngest Tendo daughter earlier. "Wise decision child. Dr Tofu didn't come right out and say it, but you are mainly responsible for all of this, and as such there will be repercussions."

"I'm not, you take that back!" Akane jumped back to her feet, when she heard a crack. It took her a moment to realise that the staff had returned and shattered her collarbone. Then the pain set in, tears sprang to her eyes even as she cradled her left arm trying to lessen the strain on the broken bones.

"That was not wise. You don't listen very well do you. Ranma I suggest you don't intervene in this." She forestalled his rush to aid Akane. "Did you hear Dr. Tofu say that Ranmas illness was caused by repeated head strikes. You are the only one who has consistently managed to strike Rama with a blunt instument, each strike has built upon the one before it and added to the damage. It doesn't matter how hard son-in-laws head is, if you continually strike a rock it will break."

"Hey!" Ranma shouted at the knock to his ego. Akane sat with a stunned expression on her face as she contemplated all that had been said to her, then as it truly began to sink in she began to weep.

"Ah come on Akane, don't cry, it ain't that bad." Ranma walked over and placed a hand on her right shoulder to try and comfort her. At which point she began to wail like a banshee, which was oddly appropriate considering Ranmas current condition. Then when she could no longer stand to be anywhere near him she bolted almost as fast as the panda had. Kasumi who had been bringing a tray of tea into the room watched in dismay as her sister caroomed off the doorframe and smashed the tray from her hands as she ran past. Looking in the room she watched the expression on Ranmas face.

"You stay here Ranma, I'll go and calm Akane down." Kasumi placed the remains of the tea service on the table as she moved to catch up with her distraught sister.

"Now that was just plain cruel Cologne." Ranma turned a gimlet stare on the aged matriarch.

"Maybe so son-in-law, but it needed to be said, she's been a spoilt brat for too many years, her parent has proven to be sorely lacking in any ability to control his daughters and has not only failed to punish their lapses in behaviour but seems to dote on them even more for each infraction. Just how many times have you had to apologize to one of the Tendo daughters for something they've done to you?" Ranma started to deny her charge against Akane and Nabiki, but when he stopped and thought for a split second he realized she was right. The instances were too numerous for him to single out any particular incident, and the number of malletings hadn't decreased in any way since Akane found out about P-chan. which was a major surprise when he thought about it, as Ryoga and P-chan had had something to do with most of his malletings over the previous year or two.

"Okay I see what you mean, but still that's my wife you just hurt(1), and no one hurts my family and gets away with it." Everyone stared at a suddenly beligerent Ranma, the man who had maintained his cool in some of the worst battlezones to ever be created in the new millenium, was starting to lose it over something so simple. Cologne and Tofu were the only ones who could see his aura ignite in a pale blue flame, so they didn't understand how dangerous he'd just become.

Dr Tofu stepped between the two to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible. "Ranma you never married Akane. Please calm down, she'll be alright."

Ranma mulled that over for a moment then turned to the good doctor. "Married, fiancee, what's the difference, she's mine to protect."

"Yes she is, but do you think she'd appreciate it if you took Cologne down only to die in the process?" Ranma seemed to deflate, but he also looked confused.

"Uh doc, what the hell's happening to me? I, I felt like killing someone, I've got all this energy pulled together inside me, I need to release it somewhere before someone gets hurt." Without saying anymore he walked over to the hole in the wall and prepared the largest Mouko Takabisha they'd ever seen, when he released that one to roar towards the horizon in a ravening ball of incandescent energy, he immediately began to build another to follow it. Cologne watching from behind realized that he still had enough energy to build a few more like that, but the two seemed to be enough for him to feel like he was back in control. It was like the limiters were off, most people even when they think they're going full out keep something in reserve, Ranma bypassed that and gathered everything he had. It could have been suicidal to release it, but then no-one here would know about it as it probably would have killed them all including a significant part of the city of Tokyo. No one really knew how powerful he was, but since Jusendo he had felt his ki reserves increase not in the small increments that it had prior to the defeat of Saffron. No it had started to increase exponentially and as such the projected death toll could well be in the millions.

Ranma stepped away from the ruined outer wall of the doctors office and faced the small group of elite martial artists who were wide eyed at the demonstration of power, each of the Mouko Takabisha had equalled the combined power expended by himself and Saffron during their final battle. With the trepidation of a small child seeking reassurance from its parent he turned to make eye contact with Dr. Tofu.

"I'm losing it ain't I doc?" His shoulders were slumped from the emotional drain, he didn't really need the answer, it was kind of obvious to him.

"I think it's safe to say that you're correct Ranma. So far you've remained in control, but there's no way of telling for how long that will hold true. I believe it would be best if I phoned Dr. Neumeyer and told him to initiate the procedure while we get you over there." Dr. Tofu made his way over to the phone and picked up the reciever in preparation of making said call then he frowned at the Amazon elder as she depressed the button to sever the phone connection.

"There's still the not so small matter of Shampoos honor, to maintain her status she must return to China with indisputable proof that she is pregnant with Ranmas child. It is the only way if we can not return with my son-in-law."

"I ain't gonna sleep with her, no way!" Ranma yelled at the tiny form of the Matriarch.

"Oh I don't think anyone expects you to sleep, at least not if Shampoo is in the bed with you." Cologne smirked as Ranma realized what she was talking about and proceeded to blush a brilliant scarlet color.

"You know what I meant old ghoul! I ain't gonna do that with her." Shampoo pouted at the percieved blow to her feminine pride.

"You turn this down? Shampoo think Airen need head examined!" She made a skimming motion as she moved her hands down to emphasise her more impressive physical endowments.

"Uh yeah thanks Shampoo but been there done that, got the c-c-c-aaat scans to prove it." The pig-tailed martial artist scratched his neck as he contemplated this most recent development.

"Excuse me, but grand-daughter be quiet now. This is a matter of face, there is nothing humorous in this situation.

"Okay Cologne I admit that both you and Ranma need to sort this out but the sooner the cryo-stasis is set up the better." Cologne gave the young doctor a measuring look and then released the button so that he could continue the interrupted phone call.

"Okay Tofu, make your call. Ranma there are other alternatives to 'sleeping' with Shampoo." She heavily shaded the key word in her sentence to make sure he understood what she was talking about.

"Hey doc, what's she talking about?" Ranma still hadn't stopped blushing at Cologne's earlier statements.

"I believe she may be referring to artificial insemination. That's where they take the sperm donated by you and fertilize one of Shampoos eggs then implant the egg back into her womb." The doctor moved to answer Ranmas question before he got the verbal component out, but then the expression on his face had been easy to interpret.

"Sperm donation?" Ranma felt kind of dumb asking all these questions but the main focus of his life had been the 'Art' almost to the exclusion of everything else.

"Yes, there are several clinics that provide facilities that take donation in Tokyo. As a private donation the only people who could use it would be the Amazons." Nokoka who'd returned halfway through this particular conversation finally got a grasp on the direction the conversation was going.

"Grandbabies!" She muttered under her breath as the implication struck home that finally she might get Ranma to provide an heir for the Saotome clan and coincidentally her first grandchild.

"We need five such samples from you Ranma"

"I dunno old ghoul, I don't think I could do that." He was completely unnerved by what he was and asked to do and it didn't help that his mother was still dancing with victory fans.

"Shampoo happy help Airen!" The young warrior chirped from the sidelines as she moved in to glomp on her reluctant spouse.

"Shampoo stand down!" The terse order in her native language had the desired effect as she froze midway to an extremely agitated Ranma. He wasn't sure what he'd do, but the way he felt at the moment he'd probably hit first and maybe not ask questions later.

"Elder Cologne..." Tofu spoke up to mention that the number of samples she required was rather excessive, but her upheld hands forestalled him from going any further.

"That is the only price we can accept. This may be my last chance to save my people." Ono Tofu was startled as she spoke again in her native language.

"What do you mean?" He asked in-kind.

"The Council of Elders will not agree with me, but the 20th century has not been kind to our tribe. Our pride and skill cannot save us, and we are dying by degrees." She closed her eyes in pain the she thought of all the people who had died in in the last twenty years. "Once our isolation protected us but now it harms us and things like medicine and education are hard to come by. It also makes us easy prey for bandits, even if we don't like to admit it. Martial arts, no matter how powerful just simply can't defeat automatic weapons, not at range anyway. If we can close, they're toast but they're usually smart enough to keep us at a distance. We are forced to pay tribute to some petty criminal who just happens to have better weapons than us."

"And how exactly does Ranma come into this equation?" The doctor wanted to know.

"Put simply, if I can help with such a matter as the population crises then maybe I can get a vote of confidence on the matter of how to deal with the criminals that hound us. Not only that but I may be able to initiate several programs for change within the laws of the village that could improve the lot of the males that stay with us. That may be the only way to ensure that the tribe doesn't die in the long term."

"I see you've thought this out fairly thoroughly, and I am prepared to support your claim and solution to Ranma on this one occasion. I still don't approve of the way you dealt with Akane, I didn't like it one bit. At the very least you could apologise for over-reacting so that her father doesn't also over-react."

"Hmmm...I see your point, but I'm not sorry. It was necessary, you say it may only take one hit to kill Son-in-law, that is not a chance I'm willing to take."

"I won't take that chance either Dr. Tofu. My husband is in no condition to be defending himself against random attacks like he usually has to."

"Shampoo, I've told you, you must speak in Japanese while you're here."

"Why? My husband is about to lose a battle that would have killed him already if he were a lesser man. As it is we have not consumated the marriage so the second he is frozen is the second the 'Sacred Combat' is nullified. There is no longer any advantage to speaking solely in Japanese, and with the way things have gone there never was."

"Maybe so, maybe no. The point is I asked you to, and have not recinded that request." Cologne wasn't sure what was behind the change in attitude but for the first time Shampoo seemed to be taking charge of herself. 'About time, I was beginning to think she was as much a bimbo as rumour would have her.'

"If as you say Great, great, great, Grand-mother(2), this was a request, then I inform you at this point in time that I choose to refuse your request. If you want to make it an order I will save us all some time and return to the village." Shampoo crossed her arms over her ample chest, letting Cologne now that she had chosen to make a stand and was not backing down. After all she was an adult now, and it was in-appropriate to sound like a bimbo all the time, especially as she wasn't.

"Fine, I suppose. But let us return to Japanese while we talk to Ranma and the others, yes?" Cologne put the right tone in her voice to let the purple hued warrior know that she was reluctantly acceding to her demand. Even if inside she was dancing a jig for the pleasure it had given her to see her protoge finally develop the spine she'd need if she were truly to follow Cologne on the Council of Elders.

"Oh don't mind me Old Ghoul, it's been real educational so far." Ranma smirked at the surprised looks on the faces of several of the people present. "Sorry, I'll go back to being dumb now if that's all right with you?" Having made his point he crossed his arms and slumped back in his chair.

"When airen learn Chinese?"

"Yes that's a question I'd like to hear an answer to as well." Cologne was suddenly torn between chuckling in glee at being surprised yet again by the young male, and genuine annoyance that he'd pulled the wool over her eyes for as long as he had.

"Last year, I started taking a course at a local community college. I got tired of you guys pulling surprise attacks on me, and it gave me a real advantage knowing what to expect ." Ono Tofu and Soun Tendo chuckled to themselves as they'd both known that he'd availed himself of extra-curricular language classes.

Cologne decided that everyone had had enough fun at her expense and set about getting the conversation back on track.

"Right, knowing that you already know on what basis I'm asking this of you should make the decision easier for you Ranma."

"And you know that I support their claim don't you?"

"Sure Doc, it ain't like your attitude has changed over the last couple of years. But this is gonna be embarrasin' ain't it?"

"Not necessarily no. I think it will be a noble thing, and by the look on your mothers face I'd say she agrees with me that it's a good idea."

"Yeah, but mom wants grandkids, and if I heard you guys right then there are gonna be loads of those, so you're gonna have to take her with you when you leave. There's no way she's gonna let them out of her sight for long. Isn't that right, mom?"

"Umm, manly."

"Er, okay we'll get back to mom later when she's not quite so focused. So what's the gameplan, if I choose to go along with this?"

"Well according to the reply I just recieved via e-mail from Dr. Nuemeyer, he wants you in tomorrow night at the latest. If you donate sperm at this facility, my name should allow for a rush job, ermmm, maybe I put that a little indelicately, but you get the idea." His response might have had something to do with the way Cologne and Shampoo were snickering like a couple of teenagers.

"Yeah, sure doc. You get me in there and I do what's necessary, then we go over to the university and I take up residence as a 'Ranmasicle', that about sum up the next twenty-four hours?"

-Timeline +26 hours-

Ranma was still not calm after what he considered to be possibly the most humiliating experience of his life. That included the fact he turned into a girl with the application of water. Including twice during the 'donation' process. Five samples had turned into eight and eight had turned into twelve. Now, he needed time to recover from tenderness in certain anatomical places that he didn't even want to think about. The worst part was that if he understood the process he was about to undertake then the sensation he was feeling right now would be the first thing he'd feel when he awoke. Talk about something to look forward to.

After half an hour he gave up trying to make heads or tails of the mess of machinery. This was not the sleek well designed machine he'd been led to believe it was, cables and conduits criss-crossed the room in what at first appeared to be a haphazzard manner until one understood just how complex the machine was. No point in advertising his own lack of knowledge in this case, so he kept his mouth shut and his ears wide even as though no one least of all himself expected him to be able to understand anything about the machine.

"Ah good evening, you must be Ranma?" The bluff features of the European man broke into a bright smile as he reached out a hand to shake that of Ranma.

"Yeah, that's me. And you are?"

"Oh forgive me my name is Andrei Nuemeyer, I'm the project leader. Now as I understand the situation, time is of the essence, so if we can dispense with formalities it would be much appreciated. If you'd like to take a seat I can answer as many questions as you like." He gestured to a small couch on the far side of the room.

"Sure Dr. Nuemeyer, so can you tell me what it will feel like?" Ranma and his parents stepped around the cables very carefully.

"Hmmm. Not really, none of the test subjects so far have been intelligent. We can only make observation on how they react upon awakening. They don't panic or act out of character, that tells me that the sensations associated with the process are minimal. Of course that's only based on empirical evidence."

"Is there any possibility that there will be harmful side effects?" Nodoka looked anxiously at the scientist waiting for his answer.

"Unfortunately there may be some effects, what they will be, we have no way of telling. I must tell you, there is always a slim chance that the freeze process will fail, and the subject will die. If he passes that stage then the likelihood of awakening him is extremely high."

"Die!" Nodoka screeched, "I thought we were trying to save Ranma!"

"And so we are Madame, I tell you only that there is risk. Crossing a road involves risk, yes. We on the other hand are attempting to do something that others have tried and given up on. The university team here believe that we have ironed out the major problems that plagued those other attempts and as such have minimised the risks." Andrei remained calm in the face of the Saotome matriarchs hysterics.

"Let it go No-chan. A martial artist must be prepared to take risks." He placed a beefy arm around his distraught wife and held her close as she shivered with emotions she'd been able to hold in for the past few days.

"Doctor, I think I'm ready."

"Are you sure Ranma?"

"Yeah, it don't matter how many questions you answer for me the situation don't change. Though I hope you can put my mom and pops at ease."

"We'll certainly try Ranma. If you could follow me." Dr Nuemeyer got up and walked out of a door in the rear of the room. Ranma found himself in a darkened corridor that led towards an elevator. "The facility is underground, this way please." So saying he stepped into the elevator." The trip down was fast, and unmarred even by the usual ubiquitous elevator music. The philosophy behind that was they weren't sure if the subject would remember things while frozen and they knew that they wouldn't like the strains of Muuzak to follow them through their slumber. Wjen the doors opened they were faced with a brightly lit room twenty metres long and half as wide, on the left hand side of the room were a couple of computer consoles looking like props from 'StarTrek', though the clothes worn by the technicians were nothing like the uniform worn by Fleet. The closest man straightened up and headed towards them.

"Good evening Andrei, and this must be our test subject. Pleased to meet you Ranma. The lovely lady must be your mother, yes? Ah, and even your father, it is a great comfort to have family around. Now Andrei the machine, she is ready and prepped." He gestured towards a bank of black boothes on the far wall. "If you'd like to come this way please Ranma we'll be fitting you with a thermal suit and then we'll position you for the procedure."

Ranma looked non-plussed at the verbal barrage he found himself under, while his mother looked slightly flustered at the attractive man calling her lovely, Genma just scowled impassively as he tried to make it seem like he came to places like this all the time. Ranma followed the strange man over to a cubicle on the far wall.

"Please change in here, the red suit on the hook, it is self adjusting to a certain degree so do not be worried about it." Ranma stepped behind the curtain and changed into the strange clothes when he stepped out both his parents had stepped forward, they'd been advised to say their goodbyes and then clear back behind the line of desks. Nodoka rushed forward and engulfed her son in a near crushing embrace.

"I'll miss you Ranma, it seems like you only just returned to me and now you're going again. It's not fair." She began to wail as she thought more about it.

"Ah, c'mon mom, it won't be that bad. You'll have lots of grandchildren to help look after." After knowing her for a number of years he knew just the buttons to push.

"Waaaaah! But they w-w-won't be yoooouu!" Ranma hesitantly returned his mothers crushing embrace.

"C'mon mom, you gotta let go now." His voice thickened as he tried to hold back a wave of his own tears, the fresh idea that she'd be a lot older the next time he saw her adding to his emotions.

"Now son, it's not manly to cry." Genma thrust himself forwards.

"Ah can it pops. I think I'll miss even you, you got all the morals of a bandit, but you're still my pops." Genma reached out to enfold his son in the improved cradle from hell technique when Ranmas reflexes kicked in and he slammed the older man in the face knocking him across the room like a skipping stone. The last time Ranma saw him was as the older man lost consciousness just as the lift doors were closing with a gentle chime, followed by the floor digits quickly ascending as the lift made its way back up.

Dr. Nuemeyer stepped forward as Ranma finished holding his mother. "Okay people, gather around." He waited for everyone to cluster. "This is Ranma if you hadn't already guessed, he'll be our test subject. If you could sign on the line, here, here and here please." He flipped several pages on his folder and pointed to relevant sections.

"What are these?"

"Just standard waivers, in case something goes wrong you understand?"

"Yeah sure, signed a few of these with the Amazons and Nabiki." On the far wall one of the black hummed briefly as it went from a vertical position to horizontal, then the lid hissed as a hermetic seal was broken and steam escaped. Ranma signed the documents.

"I'm sorry if it seems like we're rushing you Ranma but I can assure you that that everything has been taken care to ensure that the procedure goes off without a glitch. If you'd like a little more time we can wait, I know this can't be easy for you."

"Nah, I think I'd like to get it over with as quick as possible."

"Hmmm, okay. Now as we said, we're not sure if the subject remains aware on any level while in cryo-stasis but we've prepared as well as we can. On the off chance that it feels like being switched off then on there will be nothing to worry about. On the other hand we've prepared a package of subliminal and psychometric impulses to educate you while you sleep. We hope that it's the later as we fully intend to keep you as up to date with the happenings of the world as we can, that way when you awaken you'll only be slightly out of step with the rest of the world." The doctor turned to Nodoka. "If you could step behind the desk over there please ma'am, thankyou."

"Sounds cool, I'll learn stuff and I won't have to go to school or deal with crazy teachers."

"Certainly, we hope so, if you'd follow me please the machine is on standby." He led the way to the boothe, its lid had now flipped open to show a thick viscous liquid. "If you could slip into there we can begin. Now the liquid starts off warm, and will slowly cool down so you'll hardly notice the temperature. Just remain calm and everything will be alright." His voice deepened to a soothing tone.

"Sure, you're the boss. I sure hope that you know what you're doing doctor." He slid into the liquid noting that it was warm enough that it didn't trigger the change.

"So do we Ranma, so do we," he muttered, "On the inside of the lid you'll see a mask if you can don that we'll begin." Ranma reached up and placed the mask over his face then settled back into the formfitting couch, he twitched his shoulders a few times to get them into the most comfortable position he could. He remembered the animated movie where the genie complained about having a crick in his neck, and thought it might be prudent to make sure it didn't happen to him. Then he watched as the lid came down and settled against the seal with a muffled thump. He began to breath in through the nose plugs and out through the tube in his mouth even as the casket began to fill to the brim with more of the warm substance.

As he began to relax he heard a crackle in his ear. "Ranma this section of the process can take a little time would you like to hear some music while you wait?"

"No doc, I think I'll just lie here and think about things." He'd never realized how hard it was to talk with you mouth full of tube, he hoped the doc had understood him.

"That'll be fine Ranma, you might even like to try sleeping. If you want to ask anything at any time feel free. I'll just leave you to your thoughts for the moment." Ranma lay there in the dark thinking about his slightly more than quarter century of life, it had been packed, lot's of it was bad, but then there was more than enough good stuff that he didn't really have any regrets. Some unknown time later just as he started to relax towards sleep a thought struck him.

"Hey! Doc?"

"Yes Ranma? I'm listening."

"Could you ask my mom to make sure the fiancees don't try waiting for me? That would be my one regret. Make sure they continue to live. After all I'm the one in cryo-stasis not them."

"I'll be sure and tell her that Ranma. How do you feel?"

"Um, alright I guess. I thought this stuff was supposed to get colder?"

"Trust me Ranma it is, in fact we're almost ready to begin the final phase. Just bear with us."

"Sure, not like I'm going anywhere." Ranma didn't notice but the doctors on the outside did, his voice was extremely slurred as if he'd been drinking heavily. They could still understand him but it would get harder. A conversation that normally take only half a minute or so had taken nearly ten minutes. Ranma waited his mind whirling slowly through his memories when a voice could be heard counting slowly backwards.

Outside Nodoka had maintained her vigil for nearly seven hours when she heard something new. The strange man she'd met before had begun to count. Dr. Nuemeyer stepped up with a headset and handed it to her.

"It's time to say goodnight Mrs Saotome. We're about to initiate the final phase." Nodoka took the headset from him with a trembling hand and a tremulous smile for the doctor. Placing it on she fumbled for a moment for words then decided to keep it simple.

"Ranma?" Hearing a slight noise that she took for assent she continued. "Ranma, I love you son. Now it's time for you to sleep until we can make it all better. Rest my little warrior, rest."

In the background the count finally reached zero and with a slight squeak as of ice forming rapidly Ranma knew nothing more.

-The end for now.-

Now onto really important stuff. If by some chance you like, hate or are indifferent to my story please review. I'd really like to hear from you why you have any of the above feelings about my story. No, I mean really, I spent weeks working on this, all I ask is a few moments of your time in response not such a bad trade really it it? lol.

Authors Notes

(1)No Ranma hasn't married Akane, even though they're both 25yrs old in this story. The Amazons are still in Nerima due to the fact they've been expelled from the tribe and cannot return until they have made a major contribution to the tribes survival and of course there's always a chance that Ranma will fall for a certain perky purple coiffed Amazon. Ukyou is having a sabbatical from her restaraunt and is expected back in a couple of months.

(2)In this story Cologne is over three hundred years old, and as such is prone to the great, er, number of greats. Shampoo is having a dig at her as well, for which she half expected a good(bad) smackdown. After all it's not polite to rub someones nose in the fact that in an age competition with dirt that they'd come in first.


	2. Chapter 1

As always the characters and settings in the Ranma universe are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi (you wonderful person you!), Viz, Yeah you get the picture. Know that I have used these without permission (implied or specific), as an act of love(of the manga) not profit. Also of note I am a poor person so please don't sue me. Please please please!

Now onto really important stuff. If by some chance you like, hate or are indifferent to my story please review. I'd really like to hear from you why you have any of the above feelings about my story. No, I mean really, I spent weeks working on this, all I ask is a few moments of your time in response not such a bad trade really it it? lol.

First encounters of the Tverri kind

Prelude to War!

by Porthos112

Chapter 1

Who would have believed in the last years of the 21st century that beings from a far distant world, with minds immeasurably superior(I have a question. Why it is aliens are always far superior mentally to human beings?) to our own would cast their eyes upon us. Their fearful eyes watched signals from our planet, pictures of war, persecution and ever increasing destruction. And slowly and surely they drew their plans against us.

-Somewhere in a distant star system-

Qveinel crouched in front of his Grandmaster, four tentacles touching the ground at cardinal points, North, South, East and West, while the other two were raised in supplication.

"Qveinel what do you bring me?"

"The news is not good sire. They have built a Grand Fleet, and with it they destroyed the Andreoni and their home world."

"You jest! You had better not be lying or I will have the inquisitors remove your tentacles painfully." Though in reality there was no other way to remove a tentacle.

"No sire, please sire, here is the signal. It has been distorted by radiation and parts of it are missing, we believe it shows exactly as I've said to you. Some similar and matching footage was extrapolated from archives, we are not sure of the order they are in but it clearly shows an Andreoni feet attacking this... We are not sure what it is, analysis shows that this is a match in size for the outer most of the Andreoni systems moons." Qveinel waved a tentacle frantically in the air as his eye stalk blinked in near panic.

A massive screen lit up over them. The first scene it showed was an Andreoni fleet warping into orbit around their home planet, a quick count of the moons present showed that there was indeed one extra moon. The Andreoni fleet attacked, their main weapons unable to even marr the surface of the false moon, then a strange new design of star-fighter with wings in a flattened x-wing configuration began to sweep towards their massive foe... "You see here the Andreoni clearly mean to defend their system, though I must say their new design of starfighter is truly strange." The scene disintegrated into a static field of snowy partial images, then cleared again to show the moon alone in space above a planet, no sign of the Andreoni fleet or any other battle group could be seen. The scene shifted to what was obviously an internal view of the command deck, where ugly bi-pedal creatures moved around readying the equipment to fire some kind of weapon, watching the charge build and then the scene cut back to an external view. In the center of the scene a parabolic dish could be seen, from different points around the edge of the dish green beams of energy fired toward a central point some distance from the dish and then formed a single beam which rushed towards the planet below. The beam of energy proved to be devastating as the planet disintegrated and rocks and newly formed asteroids dispersed in all directions. The scene then disintegrated again into snowy field of static.

"You see! You see we were right." Qveinel's body sack flushed magenta as he(?) excitedly explained what his commander had seen.

"How sure are we that this intelligence is correct? Can we trust it?" The Grandmaster seemed dubious as to its authenticity.

"We believe so my lord, we are waiting upon your approval to send scouts. We believe that if that weapon exists we shall need to send at least a full battle group."

"Fool! If they are that advanced they will see a battle group coming from light years away. Our first probe must be small with a full suite of stealth equipment. We must approach with full caution."

"Of course, of course why didn't I think that my lord?"

"Because you, are a simpleton!" Was the rejoinder, with total contempt in his(?) voice.

-Several months later-

"My Lord, the scouts have finally returned from the Andreoni system. The findings are confusing, their system seems to be untouched. I don't understand the signal was extremely clear my lord, it shows that systems destruction."

"And what of the originating system? What do we know of it?"

"Sire, our scouts report that the closer they came to the signals source the more diversified it became. We have much more data to work with now. Following the ever strengthening signal back to its source our scout found the system totally undefended, the only signs of life were on the third planet from their sun. They found a bi-pedal life form that matched those that were on the video signal. Our findings at this stage are inconclusive."

"Who else knows about this situation?"

"Just those within this chain of command Sire."

The commander who was seated in his usual place on a small raised dais began to stroke his central body mass with a few of his tentacles, a sure sign that he was in deep thought.

"it may be time to call in the Seers and shaman, this is obviously beyond our ability to comprehend at this time. If conventional means fail then we must use what ever comes to hand(?) to decipher the meaning of this information."

"Do you think that's wise sire?"

Flushing deep purple with barely suppressed rage the grandmaster raised his central body mass off of the semi spherical stool like throne that he favored.

"YOU DARE QUESTION ME?" his raised voice crashed into the high ceiling and echoed back at his unfortunate underling, who upon hearing that screamed question skittered backwards nervously away from his obviously enraged leader. With his now pale body-sac undulating wildly and several of his tentacles covering his eye stalk he cowered flat against the marbleized floor. He nearly made his second mistake as he began to camouflage himself into the floor but managed to stop the process before it became too apparent. The first offence warranted shouting and abuse, the second would get him skinned while still alive then dropped into a pit of btigi beetles. As far as dying went he'd prefer anything to being slowly dissolved by acid secreted by the hungry beetles, excruciating didn't even begin to describe how painful that would be.

"Noooo!" the long despairing cry of fear joined the echoes of his masters shouted question.

"Silence! You will take this information to the seers and shaman, and you will take it now! Don't you ever question my orders again!"

"At once my Lord." Qveinel scuttled backwards towards the automatic doors never taking his eye off of his still color distorted leader.

-Several days later-

The doors into Second Fleet's command room snapped open revealing a half-squad of Tverri marines (see authors note's) the first three ranks step through the doorway. The first rank marched four paces into the room then snapped three paces to either side then turned to face each other, second rank moved a further four paces and then repeated the actions of the first rank, third rank repeated the actions of the first two and stopped half way to the raised throne. This left one rank of troops outside of the command center they stepped to each side of the door revealing the Head Seer and the Head Shaman of the Tverri Senate, who swept forwards into the room.

"To what do I owe this honor?" Rising from its throne the Commander of Second Fleet prostrated himself with four of his tentacles stretched flat upon the ground, one pointing to the walls at either side while the central two pointed towards the doors through which his leader's representatives had entered.

"Upon due deliberation The Council of Seers has decided that this is a vision of things to come. The vision is so strong that we must act quickly. We must press our present advantage, as it will disappear in the near future."

"The Imperial Council has decided to combine fleets two, three and four to form an offensive fleet. Fleet one currently being the best equipped shall remain in this system in defensive position."

"The Fleets shall stand off and initiate long-range bombardment of our enemy. As they seem to be confined at this point in time to their own planet it would seem expedient to initiate an extinction level event."

"How shall we do this? Any insight you could give me would facilitate a quicker operation."

"The only suggestion we make at this time is that you keep it simple, the simpler the better."

-Earth-

A long way away, and closer than you think, in a system barely inhabited, by an unknown race called humans, who clung tenaciously to their tiny mud ball of a planet. Moving in closer one could see several large continents and thousands of small islands. It is upon one of those islands that we focus, an island the locals like to call Japan. To be even more precise we focus on the capital city, on a small ward in the north of the city called Nerima.

"What's our status?"

"At present we have been granted access to 90 of government and university controlled telescopes and radio dishes on the planet."

"Are we ready to initiate tests of our Inner System Asteroid Mapping Sys. (ISAMS)."

"As of yesterday all computer analysis systems were fully functioning. I'd say we are as ready as we're ever going to be."

"Okay contact our liaisons with each facility and initiate data feed."

"Certainly." The technician hurried from the project leaders office.

"First test range, take it out to one light minute (see Authors note). Anything moving within that range, I want to know what it is, and where it's going."

"Certainly Tendo-san, initial scan may take several weeks, any subsequent scans after that will take significantly shorter amounts of time."

"Initiate then." At those words the white coat clad scientist scurried from the presence of Nabiki Tendo, the president and sole owner of the worlds largest research and developement company - Tendo Corp.

-A further several weeks pass-

"Ma'am we have completed the requested scans. It was felt that with extra computing power we could accelerate the processing speed." The scientist gulped audibly, as Nabiki hadn't authorised them to take the further development of the system, and where extra money was involved she could be very - hmm whats the word? Ah yes. - abrasive.

"What steps did you take?" The eyes, he'd been told to watch the eyes. If they narrowed in any way he'd been warned that he should make use of the door as quickly as possible. He should have been listening to the silky tone of her voice.

"Er, we accessed 'G.A.R.I.O.N.' for the extra computing power of our new super-mainframe. We think it was justified with the increase in speed of the scan."

"Results, what were they?"

"We discovered several near misses, 'G.A.R.I.O.N.' is extrapolating its findings out into the next century or two."

"What about the near misses already discovered? What time frame are we talking here?" Nabiki spoke softly, if the man facing her was any judge of character he'd think they were having a nice conversation.

Looking down at the printouts in his hands he reassured himself that he would be accurate. "The closest will pass within a few thousand kilometers, that one will intercept the Earths orbit in about three years. It's good that it won't hit us, it measures nearly a hundred kilometers across."

"That would be large enough to be classified as an Extinction Level Event wouldn't it?"

"It certainly would Tendo-sama. We attached a continuous watch on all discovered near-misses. We felt that if another asteroid impacted with them they may change trajectories and become more dangerous."

"How likely is that?" She frowned at the young man across the large desk from her, causing him to sweat lightly.

"Umm, not likely at all, in fact the likelyhood is an astronomically small one." He waited to see her smile at his small joke. He was doomed to wait in vain as some office wag had stated Nabiki was constitutionally humorless when it came to business.

"So what's the point of this continuous watch of all near misses."

"Again the project leaders feel that it would be much safer to maintain such a watch. After all the chances of winning the Tokyo lottery is also numerically improbable, but it's done on a regular basis."

"Point taken, what kind of warning do we recieve?"

"Well all section heads will recieve an internal communication, also there is a direct patch into your personal comm system, I felt you would prefer to know as soon as possible if the situation changed." He was further relieved to see her nod, but that proved to be extremely short lived.

"That explains why my wrist tingler (tm) has been sending my arm numb for the last ten minutes. Who authorised the use of my tingler alarm." She was of course talking about the wrist-watch sized alarm that had been developed to alert personell that worked in noisy environments to situations that they could not have heard otherwise. Since its inception it had been used to also denote serious situations that should not be ignored. Nabiki noticed the scientist was back to gulping nervously. "Don't bother answering that, I think I already know." Then she sat up straight as her door crashed open.

"Tendo-san, Tendo-san! The asteroid that we were watching has changed direction and is now on a direct course for Earth!" The young woman screeched as soon as she was sure she had everyones attention.

"Do you know what caused the change in course?" Roderick wanted to know how Nabiki Tendo kept that icy calm with the news that she'd just received, he had already been nervous before this had happened and now he was on the verge of becoming a total wreck.

"No Tendo-san, there does not seem to be any reason for it. We are increasing the intensity of the scan in that area even as I speak."

"Hmmmm," tapping her chin in thought, "once we have more information we will need to contact all relevant governments. In the mean-time hand the problem solving components over to 'Tendos Think Tank', we'll need some plan to resolve the situation as quickly as possible."

"I took the liberty of doing that already Tendo-san." The young woman made firm eye-eye contact with the most powerful woman in the company, something that the elder woman appreciated.

"Very good. I like people who take the initiative." For the first time since the interview had started she smiled, the smile didn't reach her eyes, but it was definitely better than being reamed for being presumptuous.

"Thank-you Tendo-san." Breathing a sigh of relief Lissa Elridge let the tension leave her, they'd been right it was easier to gain forgiveness sometimes than to get permission. Not in this case obviously as she'd been given instruction to do exactly as she'd already done. It was always nice to receive recognition though, since she'd moved here from Europe this was the first time she'd felt her job was secure, of course if Tendo Corp couldn't resolve the situation it would hardly matter in the long run.

"This has become the most important project we currently have. Shuffle all staff necessary, I don't care if other things fall behind or fail totally. We can restart in any case, other than if that asteroid strikes the Earth. I suggest you move quickly on this, you're dismissed." Back to the cold and calculated demeanour that had let her create her company from scratch in just fifty years.

Her staff ran for the door, when Nabiki said make haste she wasn't talking for effect and they knew it.

Turning back to her communications unit as her door slammed shut she punched in the private number of one of her personal friends.

"Yes, President McCauley it is indeed important. No, I don't believe this can wait on the Russian Prime-ministers dinner party. I suggest you call him, this information should be shared. That project we notified you of over a month ago has borne fruit. I assure you, I have no sense of humour where this is concerned Mr President. Yes I'll hold." Nabiki sat drumming her fingers in impatience they now had a timetable for doomsday and it was a lot closer than she felt comfortable with.

"Now Tendo-san, what did you mean when you said Project Icarus has borne fruit?" The gruff voice of Russias leader joined the conversation finally.

"Well sir, it was brought to my attention that an asteroid on a near collision course with Earth has had its course altered. While at this time we have no knowledge of what changed its course, we believe that action must be taken, as its course is now directly in line with this planet."

"How sure are you? I mean this is just so fantastic, so unlikely, is there any chance of the information being wrong?"

"None President, the simulation is being run for the third time even as I speak."

"This sounds serious enough. Where will the object strike?"

"Mr President, I can say with absolute conviction that it will not matter where it strikes."

"Your meaning Miss Tendo?"

"Sir, 'G.A.R.I.O.N.', our Super-mainframe has calculated that this asteroid is 2000 larger than what is needed to initiate an Extinction Level Event. On its shortest axis it measures 117.3 kilometres, we can not estimate mass as we don't know what it's composed of, but unless it's made of helium it won't make one iota of difference."

"My God! We need to come up with some way to destroy that thing!" President McCauley sounded extremely shaken, he'd gone from consulting a menu to select his entree and main course to contemplating the end of mankind, it was lucky he seemed to have lost his appetite for he was pretty sure he wasn't going to be able to eat a thing after this. Nabiki just sat there thinking to herself, 'Yeah way to state the obvious Jonathon Henry McCauley Esq.'(I have yet to figure out why women use a persons full name when they're thinking bad thoughts about them.) Of course there was no way she'd ever say something like that to the leader of the third most powerful nation on the planet.(All Americans please read the authors notes before you flame me. roflmho)

"I will be releasing an information package to all government heads as soon as possible, the sooner they're apprised of the situation the better."

"That would be a great help Miss Tendo. I did not look forward to telling anyone else about this. Speaking of that, who knows about this?"

"As of this moment, we three, the scientists involved with Project Icarus and Triple T(Tendos Think Tank)."

"This is good da? I think the fewer people who know of this the better, yes?" Vladmir Bornakova as always reverted to broken english when he became excited.

"I couldn't agree more, the second this becomes public knowledge from a reliable source, that's the second the world goes up in flames."

"What do you mean, reliable?"

"Well Mr President a couple of months before we started this project a vagabond moved into a doorway opposite the Tendo compound, every time I walked past him he was muttering about the end of the world coming from the sky. Now for some reason I didn't believe him. I guess I should have been paying better attention. But the second some CNN reporter makes that claim it's all over bar the shouting, screaming and looting. The world may end before it's destroyed in that case. Now do you get my meaning?" Nabiki's tone turned icy as she continued her diatribe against the likely actions of mankind.

"Yes, quite graphically I assure you. So you believe that society will descend into anarchy at the knowledge that the world is going to end?"

"It's basic human nature, when faced with total destruction, the greater mass of humanity will decide that it's time to gratify all the things they want to do before the end of their lives and screw anyone who gets in their way."

"You paint a bleak picture Nabiki. But I also fear this may come to pass." The president murmurred.

"I agree, secrecy is a key factor at this stage, we must allow ourselves time to plan. If we can present a coherent plan to the people we may even avert the panic, even better would be to present them with a fait accompli."

"Speaking of security Miss Tendo, I can have a contingent of CIA operatives there to vet your security measures within the day. For in these troubled times surely we must take every precaution..."

"Mr President. Mr President!" She cut him off before he could wind up into full diplomatic hyperbole, she'd never understood why politicians talked so much but said so little. Nabiki herself tended to be fairly close about her emotions, if she was annoyed you knew she was annoyed, if she was downright furious you'd know she was annoyed, at least until she retaliated, if she was happy you'd know she wasn't annoyed, and in the case of confusion you'd think the world had come to an end. One thing She hated and that was not knowing, and confusion was as far as she was concerned the ultimate state of not knowing. The president finally wound down so that Nabiki could respond.

"With all due respect, the CIA has been trying to infiltrate my company for the last forty years, what makes you think I'll just hand over the key to those self same security measures at this or any other time? Both you and I know that any leaks will not come from my people, I have their total loyalty."

"Hmm yes I seem to recall that the only man to ever break your security was named Hibiki, we've wanted to talk to him about that but no one can seem to find him." The President sounded perplexed, how could it be so hard to find one man.

Nabiki allowed herself a small smirk, ' If they only knew.'

"Yes well, I don't believe this is the issue at this time Mr. President. We have a planet to save."

"Da, da! It is time for as you Americans say 'to put up or shut up'. Now, when Triple T comes up with solution, forward the lists for materials to me personally and I will see that they are acted upon immediately. Now I would like to see the information package as soon as possible my science advisers must know as soon as possible."

"The information package will be released in the morning Mr. Prime Minister. It will be good to have one of the planets most comprehensive space programs on board, it might be best to advise them to prepare for multiple launches as any solution will need to be activated in space."

"I thank you Nabiki Tendo, and now I must return to my guests. I look forward to speaking to you in the future."

"Mr. President are you still with me?"

"Yes Miss Tendo I am. May I make a suggestion at this time?"

"Please go ahead, anything said at this point in time could prove to be useful."

"I believe that Strategic Command could initiate a nuclear missile strike to intercept the asteroid. I'm pretty sure if we hit it with enough firepower we can break it up well before It becomes a true danger to Earth."

"What kind of accuracy would a missile, used over that distance have?"

"Hmmm, then we may have to make it a multiple strike. I'd feel better with that anyway as it increases the possibility of wiping this menace from our skies."

"We'll have 'G.A.R.I.O.N.' run a simulation on the possibility as soon as I've talked to Triple T. I'd rather not waste that kind of ordinance on an option that may be doomed to failure."

"To be perfectly honest Miss Tendo I wouldn't see that as a waste, it will greatly decrease our stockpiles of nuclear weapons in one fell swoop."

"Maybe, but what of the future, when we begin to explore our solar system and encounter the added danger of unexploded nuclear warheads?"

"Point. How about a termination range set for somewhere just beyond the asteroid."

"That might work, but still I'd prefer to hold on that until Triple T has had a chance to vet the idea."

"Okay, it's against my better judgement but I'll refrain from launch until your think tank comes up with something of its own. I'd give this to my advisors to discuss, but they tend to think in straight lines. Good help is, as they say, so hard to find." The President of the USA had a chuckle before he finished his statement, "especially when every time I get someone competent, you steal them away." He continued to chuckle to take any implied sting out of his statement, Nabiki Tendo, while she was not into politics in the same way as other big business people, was classified as political for the simple reason she had at her command more money and resources than most first world nations. With those she liked or admired she could be generous, private aid packages would make the difference to a tiny nations education program, food parcels had been given, water pumps and de-salinisation plants had been known to be built in poor countries that had no hope of ever being able to afford such luxuries as clean water. While her name was never attached to any of these projects it was understood that messing with any of them would be a fatal experience for the offender, either politically or in reality. In the same way that gain-saying her on her proposed course of action would be the same as signing his own political death warrant. Nothing overt would be done, but the little things that could be overlooked in moderate ammounts would suddenly escalate until the public lost all faith in their leader, the irony was they were usually things they'd successfully buried up until they annoyed Nabiki.

"I note for the record that you object to my course of action Mr President."

"Oh, no-no, I just feel that this is a time to act."

"Again duly noted. When I said that this was my companies first priority now and in the future, I was not jesting, I meant that any and all resources at my disposal would be used for this until the crisis is averted."

The President sighed audibly. "That's a great relief to hear Tendo-san."

"That's okay Jonathon, I'll send the bill for it after we finish with the asteroid. Now what did you mean by steal all your competent staff? I can assure you I do no such thing, I merely offer them better incentives than the American government can afford."

"Yes so I heard, you even got my own daughter working for you. You'd think that she'd let me know some of the inside information on your company, but no, you command her loyalty more than her own poppa does." His voice had turned warm at the mention of his daughter, she had truly done him proud to be accepted into Tendo Corp at the ripe old age of seventeen.

"She just knows a good thing when she sees it." -chuckle- "Can you blame her? Anyway we always keep an eye on the Mensa organisation as some of our think tanks greatest contributors come from their ranks, your daughters file had been red flagged by me by the time she reached twelve. I just couldn't nab her until she was old enough to work for a living."

"Ah, so the finely honed ethics of Nabiki Tendo come forward and save my daughter from a life of slavery." Now Jonathon McCauley let his receding grey hair down and joined in the laughter. "By the way Mary wants to know when you'll be coming to visit her again, and if by any chance you could bring her youngest child back to the states for a visit?"

"I'll ask her, but you know how driven she is. It may take an executive order and a crow-bar to get her away from G.A.R.I.O.N."

"Yes, it crushes this old mans heart everytime I think that I've been thrown over for an overgrown pile of silicon chips."

"Oh I'm sure you'll get over it, eventually. Tell Mary it may take a few weeks but I'm sure I can pull some strings with the boss."

"Yes I'm sure you can. I'd say it's been nice talking to you Nabiki, but under the circumstances, damn, I wish they were different cicumstances."

"Yes, I couldn't agree more." She noticed a project update on her computer screen, after quickly reading it she turned to let her companion know what was happening. "The information packages have already been sent by the looks of things, you should recieve a copy in a few hours. Then all we can do is wait on Triple Ts' planning session."

"Until later then Nabiki."

-click-

Nabiki looked down at her computer terminal and smiled, Lissa Elridge was turning out to be a real go-getter, a woman after her own heart. She followed the trail of orders the younger woman had issued in her name across the breadth of the complex, most she'd been about to issue herself but then there were a few more she hadn't got around to thinking of herself. That's what made finding such treasures so enjoyable.

-click-

"Yes, how can I help you Tendo-sempai?"

"Lissa, would you join me for a moment please?"

"If I could take a second to finish here I'll be with you in a few minutes."

"Please take your time, I'm in no hurry."

"Certainly Tendo-sempai, I'll be there shortly."

-click-

Nabiki released the communication switch on her console and paged her personal assistant, "Saga-san could you provide some refreshments for myself and a guest?"

"Certainly ma'am, it won't take long, do you have any preferences?"

"No, surprise me."

"Okay, I'll have them to you within ten minutes." The intercom clicked off while her personal secretary attended to Nabiki's request, a few minutes later the speaker on her desk buzzed again, "Ah, Tendo-san Lissa Elridge is here to see you, should I have her wait?"

"No send her straight in."

Across the large room that contained her office one leaf of the double doors swung open and in strode the energetic woman she'd asked to see such a short time ago.

"You sent for me Tendo-san." Statement of fact, not a question as she would not have dared enter Nabiki's inner sanctum without express permission.

"Yes. Please, take a seat. I have sent for refreshments."

"You are too kind."

"I have just got off of the phone to some friends in Europe, they were greatly surprised by the news I had to impart."

"Oh? So?" Nabiki hid a smile, the young girl played the game quite well, but to be truthful at her time of life it became too much effort to play the standard game of Japanese business etiquette. Where the superior led the conversation in circles until he or she decided to get to the point, this let them know many things about the person being talked to, but usually only about their ability to handle frustration.

"I'll get straight to the point," She hid her smile totally as she watched Lissas shoulders slump slightly in relief, "after talking to the President of the US and the Russian Prime-minister, I checked my progress files in preperation of issuing some orders that I felt should be acted upon, only to find that I'd apparently already issued them. Would you happen to know anything about that?" The tenseness came back to the youth, and in spades.

"Er, I can explain Tendo-sama."

"You can?"

"Yes Tendo-sama I can." She staightened her shoulders as if defiantly facing a firing squad, then she winced slightly at the thought of the word firing. "You see I issued those orders."

"Surely you are mistaken young woman, I see no indication that they were issued by you."

'Oh crud, she's not just going to hang me up, she's going to skin me as well.'

"Ummm, I thought they were necessary so I issued them in your name." She shrunk down in her chair waiting for the explosion.

"You did?" Nabikis tone turned silken.

-bzzzzz- Lissa barely stopped herself from jumping up from her chair and bolting as the intercom went off. (for those of you who thought Nabiki had electrocuted her, shame on you! lol)

"Yes?"

"The refreshments you ordered have arrived Tendo-san."

"Send them in Saga-san, also I'll need you to bring in contract 7b."

"Contract 7b? Ah here it is, I'll print a copy and have it with you momentarily."

The doors on the far-side of the room were opened to make way for a trolley with several platters of food and a wide selection of beverages.

"On the coffee table please. Lissa and I were about to move our discussion to a more comfortable venue." She rose smoothly for a woman in her mid seventies and gestured for Lissa to proceed her. As Lissa walked ahead she was thinking, 'and the condemned had of a hearty meal.' Nabiki was openly smiling, which would have been a great relief for Lissa but for the fact she was facing the wrong way.

The orderly who had wheeled the trolley into the room finished transferring the food and drinks to the low table as the women sat down facing each-other again.

"You're probably wondering why I called you here." The younger woman uncrossed her legs and sat forward in anticipation, dreading the next words she might hear. She sat and waited, neither moving or breathing in case it change the outcome in any way.

"I, as you know run one of the largest companies on the planet." The younger woman began to frown, but Nabiki waved a hand dismissing the question before she could ask it. "As such I often find that I miss things, important things, things that I really shouldn't miss. This being the case I find I have need of competent assistants. You've been with the company for the better part of a year now haven't you?"

"Yes Tendo-sama." Lissa was now thoroughly puzzled.

"And would you say you've dealt with the transition to a Japanese company well?"

"I'd like to think so Tendo-sama."

"I too have noted that you've handled yourself with extreme competence since you've arrived here. In fact I'd go so far as to say you've flourished here. As most of my staff know I admire competence in all its forms, I believe it should be rewarded that's why I've called you here. One of my personal assistants has asked to retire and I find myself in need of a replacement. The position is open if you're interested. Well, are you interested?"

"O-o-of c-course Tendo-sama, I'd be honoured!"

"There was no of course about it, and there's certainly no honour. This will mean a lot of hard work and even greater resposibility, as such the repurcussions for failing are correspondingly higher. Of course as I reward my employees rather handsomely for the added onus I would hope that wouldn't be a problem. If you accept you'll continue as liason between Project Icarus and Triple T and of course myself, you will in fact become the project leader, the only limits on your position will be myself and a finacial over-sight commitee. Not that I deem the financial side of things to be important at this time. I suggest that before you answer you read this document, contract 7b deals with all personal assistants and project leaders, stating the terms and conditions of the position. I also advise you talk to my personal assistants and some of the project leaders and find out what they think about the positions they hold. Nothing said will be reported to me as I have complete trust in them all, as I hope they have in me. I would remind you though that I must appoint a project leader soon so I would appreciate an answer within the next couple of days." Handing the younger woman said documents she smiled, and this time the smile reached her eyes, she had never had a family of her own but if she had a daughter she'd hope her child would be something like Lissa Elridge.

"Certainly Tendo-sama." Lissa was slowly recovering her equilibrium after the stunning request from her boss.

"Now enough of that, I don't require that level of formality between myself and my personal assistants, you may call me Nabiki. Now if you would, I have some things I must attend to. If you have any queries please don't hesitate to contact me."

Lissa promptly lost all the equilibrium she'd regained, "Thankyou Nabiki-san." She rose on unsteady feet and bowed formally to Nabiki, before taking the paperwork and leaving the room.

Nabiki steepled her fingers and sat in thought for a moment, 'She has a great deal of potential that one, I'll have to keep an eye out for her.' Then she pushed all other considerations from her mind and turned to the work on her computer terminal.

-Two days later-

"Good-morning Gentlemen, as I believe time is of the essense I will herewith dispense with any formality. I have given you all time to read and digest the information in the packages I sent to you. The situation, as stated is dire, the only way to survive at this time is to co-operate, there-fore I propose that we move as quickly as possible. A brief update would be in order now, Triple T has made several recommendations, the first of which is in answer to the proposed nuclear strike by the president of the United States. They suggest that we go ahead with this proposal, I am forwarding an adjunct to the current information package which will outline the projects requirement. Also they have made tentative proposals for the removal of said asteroid. Any questions?"

"Yes Miss Tendo, any project that deals in space will require exorbitant amounts of money, my question is who foots the bill?"

"Well Monsuer Clemont at this time I do not believe that that's an important question, it's either supply the materials or kiss the planet goodbye. Now if you believe money is more important than that then I have to ask what your agenda is?"

"The French are not a rich country, we have neither the money or the resources required to help in this situation."

"Then you refuse to help? I would advise you at this time that failing to help would be remembered for a very long time. The French space program could be of great use to us as well as the fact that your nation has some of the specialist engineering companies we'll need." Nabiki frowned at the French premier.

"I feel that this is not in the best interests of my nation." With that the Frenchman's monitor went dead in the video conference room.

Several of the other national leaders looked outraged.

"Is he stupid...?"

"Did he understand anything in the information package?"

"Damn fool!"

"Gentlemen I believe we are off subject, we need to focus and we need to move quickly. I'll deal with the French premier afterwards. Now on to business...several hours later... And that gentleman concludes our first planning session. I move that all future communications on this matter be done through diplomatic channels, I'd also like to announce that Tendo Corp. in a bold new initiative will be moving forward on an asteroid mining project, this will be our cover story in the event anyone asks about our multiple launches. I feel that if we give people a logical explanation they will be less likely to jump to conclusions of their own, and also in one key factor it's totally correct, we are in fact going after an asteroid. So ladies and gentlemen I believe this concludes our business for today, unless there are any other questions," she waited for several moments for those around the room to demur, " in that case gentlemen I'll bid you good day." Nabiki sighed shortly after the little red lights on top of her camera stopped blinking.

"Tendo-san?" Nabiki looked up at her new protégé.

" What is it Lissa?"

"The project heads wish to know if they have a green light?"

"They do indeed. Oh and Lissa before you go I'd like you to contact special investigations branch and have them prepare a dossier on the French premier."

"Certainly Tendo-san." Lissa Elridge hurried from the room at her usual precipitous velocity.

-six months later-

Nabiki stood in front of her newly French designed holo-screen, 2 m tall by three wide and three deep, a marvel of modern technology it was currently being used to track the progress of some 200 nuclear missiles towards a certain distant asteroid. Said asteroid occupied the dead center of the screen as it was the focus of all their efforts, with four hours to go before impact the asteroid seemed to slide to one side.

The whole room exploded in chaos as the scientists in the room watched the impossible, a point that many of them were now screaming at the top of their lungs. For the next three hours Tendo Nabiki watched as the others in the room continued to react in panic. She like everyone else had been stunned as she watched the percentage marker above the asteroid change from 87 percent to a mere 2 percent, unlike everyone else she'd begun to think about causes, from the most likely to the most unlikely. She'd noticed several things that the others were too panicked to notice, the first was that even though the asteroid had moved it hadn't changed its trajectory and would still impact Earth in some two and a half years, secondly she noticed that the asteroid did not tumble through space but spun on what seemed to be a stable axis, an axis that followed its trajectory line straight through Earth. Nabiki had an unusual mind in the fact that even though usually her thought processes followed a logical path, she sometimes would just have a flash of insight where everything would drop into place in an instant. The conclusion she was now forming was that no random set of factors could possibly lead to events as they stood. One change of trajectory was unlikely but possible, two changes while maintaining the same trajectory was stretching the bounds of the possible beyond reality, the only possible conclusion was that the trajectory changes were being artificially induced, meaning that somewhere out there another species of intelligent beings were acting against the planet Earth. At T-minus five minutes the clustered nuclear warheads broke apart and then aimed for where they believed the asteroid to be. As predicted only 2 of the warheads impacted the asteroid meaning that nearly 30 -- 10 mega-tonne warheads were on target. The rest sailed serenely past undetonated until they reached the termination range set by G.A.R.I.O.N. where a sphere of light a thousand times larger than the asteroid lit the dark void of space.

-The end for now.-

Now onto really important stuff. If by some chance you like, hate or are indifferent to my story please review. I'd really like to hear from you why you have any of the above feelings about my story. No, I mean really, I spent weeks working on this, all I ask is a few moments of your time in response not such a bad trade really it it? lol.

Authors note's:

This story as you'll see was placed in the future. All those signals that have headed off into space since the creation of television have finally borne fruit, and an advanced civilization has decided to respond with the only form of communication that they believe we are capable of. Any guesses as to what that will be?

The race of aliens are called the 'Tverri'. A multi-tentacled species, resembling an octopus crossed with a cuttle-fish, that discovered interstellar travel before mankind discovered the wheel. They have met several other species of alien in their limited exploration of their section of the galaxy. Situated almost 350 light years from Earth they have grown progressively more paranoid as time passes. The alien in itself has a central body sack nearly a meter across, four tentacles append from the underside of the body as 'legs', while the other six append from the sides and above. Each tentacle has two fingers and an opposing thumb, providing a grip that though not as sure as a humans with our four fingers and a thumb, they have more 'hands' than we do. The eye stalk sits on top of the body sack directly between two of the tentacles. It's maybe 2 feet long and has three eyes or sensor units in it, the first is visual, the second is infrared while the third picks up ultraviolet. The last two are vestigial sensory units, from when they were a primitive but adaptive food source for a much larger predator, they still work, though just not as efficiently, a little like the human nose. Something else held in common with a cuttle fish is the ability to change the pigments in the skin layer giving them the ability to almost perfectly camouflage themselves into the terrain. The outer layer of skin while flexible is incredibly tough and rubbery, this acts as a layer of armor. The other difference is that the Tverri have a skeleton that supports the tentacles and provides extra armor in the body sack. After first combat the troops and then the hierachy take to calling the Tverri by the name Calamari for obvious reasons.

Tverri marines, an elite imperial guard that's a cross between a Commando and a Navy-seal. In other words not someone you want to have confused about your loyalties or which side of any given conflict you're on.

To give you an idea of distance in this case, the sun is approximately 8 light minutes from earth.

'G.A.R.I.O.N.' stands for Gigantic. Array. Reality. Inversion. Omni. Network. Please don't ask what that means. As I have no idea. As with most acronyms I reckon they start with a cool sounding name and then work backwards from there. I know I did!

For those Americans who are offended that I place their nation as the third most powerful on the planet at the time of this fanfic I have this to say. At this point in time both India and China have a much greater economic growth rate than the US, I take this to mean that fifty years from now it's quite possible that these two will be classed as super-powers if not in military might then certainly in economic terms.


End file.
